History of the Day for:
April 15
- 1817: The first American school for the deaf opened in Hartford, Conn.
- 1850: The city of San Francisco was incorporated.
- 1861: Three days after the attack on Fort Sumter, President Lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called out Union troops.
- 1865: President Lincoln died after being shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington.
- 1912: The British luxury liner RMS Titanic sank off Newfoundland less than three hours after striking an iceberg, killing 1,517.
- 1923: Insulin became available for general use for diabetics; Dr. Lee DeForest's "Phonofilm," the first sound-on-sound motion picture, was demonstrated in New York City.
- 1940: The Allies begin their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which is occupied by Nazi Germany.
- 1941: In the Belfast Blitz, two-hundred bombers of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) attack Belfast, Northern Ireland killing one thousand people.
- 1942: George Cross is awarded to "to the island fortress of Malta – its people and defenders" by King George VI.
- 1947: Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.
- 1945: British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen.
- 1947: Jackie Robinson, baseball's first black major-league player, made his official debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on Opening Day.
- 1952: The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress.
- 1955: Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Ill.
- 1971: George C. Scott earned Best Actor honors for "Patton" at the Academy Awards, but refused the award.
- 1986: The United States launched an air raid against Libya in response to the bombing of a Berlin disco on April 5.
- 1989: Ninety?five people died in a crush of soccer fans at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England.
- 1990: Actress Greta Garbo died in New York at age 84.
- 1997: Jackie Robinson's No. 42 was retired 50 years after he became the first black player in major league baseball.
- 2002: An Air China Boeing 767-200, flight CA129 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Busan, South Korea, killing 128.